Missing Christmas
by Veridissima
Summary: It's the world's first Christmas after it happened, and Arya misses her family… Fill for Countdown to Wintertown on Game of Ships


_Blame this on_ The 100 _promo on Monday, my OTP kissed! YEAH! and I've been obsessed since then (and to make matters worse I had to study so I couldn't rewatch anything – now I have rewatch a few episodes :D ), so this was a last minute plot change, but I hope it turned out okay :)_

 _Also this is a fill for the Countdown to Wintertown on tumblr – gameofshipschallenges_

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Arya was not moving. Gendry tried to wake her up, but she didn't move, she only grunted... she was never like this

"Arya…. we need to wake up. I thought we could search around today." She didn't move again, and Gendry got in bed with her, again. "Arya, are you okay? I'm worried."

"It's Christmas, Gendry…" she whispered. Her voice sounded so weak and small – he hadn't heard her like that since that first day. He soon realized what was happening – it was the world's first Christmas after it happened, after the world was burned and destroyed.

"Arya, it's okay, I'm here. Maybe we can do something today."

"I want my family," she whispered and he pulled her closer. "I was supposed to be eating multiple pancakes and drinking hot cocoa, and discussing about what Santa would bring us at night, with Mom and Dad looking at us, sure that they knew the answer," she pulled herself closer to him.

Christmas has never been anything special to him. His mom had died when he was only a kid; and then at the home, Christmas was something only for the younger ones, and Gendry had always been okay with that. But he knew Arya and her family – they always had huge plans for Christmas, with a lot of food and presents, and playing in the snow – there was no snow anymore, only ashes.

"What if we just stay here today?" he suggested next. "You can decide what we do." He tried making her feel better.

"They're dead, Gendry. And I'm here…"

"You don't know they're dead. The house was empty…" he reminded her once again.

Arya had been with him when the fire fell – he feared that someday she would blame him for not being with her family when the end came. They had gone back to her house, it was all burned down and destroyed, but they hadn't found any bodies, Arya had looked fearing the worst (she was still fearing the worst).

"I have a plan, Arya," he told her. "But for that you need to get out of bed, and we both need to get dressed."

"I don't want to."

"This can help you find your family."

"We're not even sure they are out there," she whispered.

"Arya, we don't know, they could be." Gendry wasn't the most hopeful guy, but he would try to be for Arya.

"Okay," she whispered. "Okay…" He got up first, and waited for a bit for Arya to stand; when she did she took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

Arya looked for her clothes in their packs, always left in the left corner of the room, and she took some of her armour, to put over her shirt – there were always people who took advantage of the others' misery – after she changed from her sleeping pants to jeans. She looked over at shirtless Gendry, who was looking for a warmer sweatshirt; the scratches in his back immediately called to one's attention – Arya knew they were her doing, he had been hurt when trying to protect her.

"Your back is still not healed. We should probably try to get some medicine."

"I'm okay. Leave the medicine to the people who really need it," he told her, like he always did. "Maybe we can open one of the chocolate bars today."

"We shouldn't eat today. It isn't in your schedule."

"You reminded me it was Christmas – it's only right we eat today."

"For dinner then," she gave him, turning the chocolate bar away.

After, Gendry picked her up so she could hide their things in their secret place, between broken pieces of rock.

"It's in place," she told him, and he put her down. So equipped with armour and weapons, they left their safe place under the ground (in a very old abandoned metro station, that had partially collapsed on itself when the fire fell). Gendry pulled her out of the hole, before covering it, and took her hand has he walked her down the street.

Arya was silent, she didn't say anything… she barely walked behind him – it was like she was a completely different Arya from the one he had known for years. Gendry took off his gun, knowing that they were entering a dangerous zone, and held tighter to Arya's hand; he held her as they climbed a pile of rocks that he knew that before had been a really nice dinner where he had spent a lot of his free time during high school.

"Where are we going?" she asked, and Gendry read some curiosity in her eyes – that was a good sign.

"Somewhere that can help us. Hopefully it's still standing," he told her. "Come on. We're almost there."

They continued walking through the piles of fallen buildings, until he pulled her back when he noticed some people standing around. They didn't seem violent, but nobody was in the right spirit of mind since it happened, so he preferred not having to interact with anyone.

"Let's be quiet. I think we can pass by them, without calling for attention." Arya nodded, she had no problem staying quiet; he was always the problem, with his huge body and lack of ability to walk straight. But this time it was okay, the people were distracted, singing Christmas carols, and after they moved past the group, Gendry founded what he wanted – it was mostly destroyed, the building had fell down like many others, but entrances were still open, and he knew he would find what he wanted in the basement… hopefully still working.

"This was your school?" she asked.

"Yes. Spent many years here – never very useful, but I think it can help us now," he told her. "Let's find an entrance now."

"I'll go first, Gendry. To see if the entrance is safe and if there is enough space for you," she told him, resuming their usual technique when visiting a new place. At first Gendry hadn't liked to put her at risk, but she had been right it was the smarter plan, and Arya had always been able to take care of herself. "Gendry! Gendry!" she yelled, and he ran to her. "There's a window up there. Can you raise me? It seems to have a clear path."

"Sure," he said, helping her up the wall, and making sure to be ready to catch her if she slipped. "Can you see it?" he asked as she reached the window.

"It looks good. I'm going to search for a bit, but I think you can walk here." Gendry waited for her to come back, she was probably gone for less than one minute, but it seemed much longer to Gendry. "It's safe," she yelled back. "Can you climb? I can get you something to hold on – wait a second." She disappeared from the window again, and appeared soon after with what he thought to be curtains. "I'm holding it, now come on." Gendry did as she said, and climbed up the building, taking her hand as he approached the window.

"We're here," he told her, hugging her.

"Where to now? Maybe we should check for food first…"

"It has probably already been raided. But we can check the kitchen," he told her. "First we need to get to the first floor."

"I saw a flight of stairs," she told him. Arya seemed to be getting better, he suspected that it was something to do with having something to focus on.

The flight of stairs could no longer actually be considered a flight of stairs, but it did the job of getting them into the first floor. Gendry was still a bit disoriented, since the school didn't look the same, but he was able to trace their way to the kitchen.

"It's barricaded. I can't get in," he told her, as she looked for some hole she could pass by.

"I can," she said, finding one.

"Be careful," he told her, as she threw her bag in front of her, before going in herself.

"I'm okay. It's not this bad on this side." After that there was only silence, as she searched the kitchen, and then finally cursing. "They took everything, Gendry. There's nothing here," she yelled from the other side.

"It's what we suspected. Come on, Arya, we have other things to do." When Arya got back to him, she was again back to her sad state. "We're looking for a door to the basement," Gendry told her, as he already got his flashlight from his pack. He quickly found the door, and inside they found a place that was almost still intact, using the flashlight, Gendry searched for the thing he wanted. "Here it is," he finally said.

"What is it?"

"A very old coping machine. Jeyne liked to use this one to make her president of the student body campaign posters – let's say that the voters preferred the flashy posters with the digital copy," he said, with a smile, and Arya took his hand, tracing the wristwatch on his wrist.

"I'm sorry…" she told him. "My family could still be alive, but Jeyne, and… And I'm complaining, and you…"

"Arya, everyone has the right to feel what they feel," he told her, looking at the watch on his wrist, it was cracked and no longer worked – it marked 13:05, the exact moment the fire started falling from the sky.

The watch had belonged to Jeyne and Willow's mother, and after she died they both wore it, interchanging every few days. He had found it on her burned body when they went to her restaurant/inn, after going to the Stark house; the wristwatch and her height had made it possible to him to identify the body as Jeyne, his closest friend during high school; and then in the kitchen, they had found another body that clearly fitted Hot Pie's body – they were sure it was him… Willow, he hadn't been able to identify, it was lunch time and the place was full, they searched the many different burned bodies on the ground, but he couldn't use anything to identify Willow – but she was probably between those people unidentified.

"Willow and Lommy could still be alive," she told him, squeezing his hand, pulling him back to reality.

"Yes, so can your family. Can you give me the photo of your family?"

"Why?" she asked. She rarely took off the photo of her person, only to bathe and when they had sex – it was not really comfortable to do it with a photo of her parents and siblings with her.

"We can try to copy it."

"Why didn't we try it before?"

"I didn't think of it before," he told her.

"What if you ruin the photo?" she asked fearing the outcome.

"I won't. I saw Jeyne do this a million times."

"Okay. I trust you," she told him, taking the photo from under her shirt. "Be careful."

"I will, Arya," he said, opening the photo. It was a rather large one, it used to be above the fireplace, it was also an old photo – they all looked much younger. Arya didn't look to be older than 10 in the photo, but she had always been small, so she could be older… he didn't know – she didn't like to talk about it.

He started the machine, redoing every step he remembered seeing Jeyne do; he was extra careful to not miss a step or worst ruin Arya's photo, but after the first copy came out, he was sure he was doing a good job – the photos weren't perfect, but he was sure if her family saw them, they would know.

"Get a pen, Arya. And start thinking of something to write that they will understand."

"What should I write?" she asked.

"Some place they could meet us," he said. "But we don't want to be attacked, so some place that only they can understand."

"Okay," she nodded, and started thinking – Gendry looked at her as she bit her lip, waiting for her to say anything, but she was still quiet and thinking, as he kept copying the photo.

When they had enough copies, and Arya seemed to have a message figured out, they left the basement to go upstairs, where there was still natural light. They found a classroom, with some pens, and they both sat down, writing the same message in all the photos he could copy.

 _Starks,_

 _Arya, here. Meet me in our Christmas Park, at midday. I'll be there everyday._

 _Please come._

Arya was sure they would understand the message – they had been going to the same park at Christmas for years, she was sure they could read the message. They needed to.

"Where are we putting this?" Arya asked.

"Visible places in the city, and close to your home."

"What if they have left the city?!"

"I don't know, Arya. We'll wait, hopefully someone will come," Gendry said, pocketing some duck tape. "Grab some pens and paper as well – it could be useful."

"Okay, and we should check the gym and the lost and found for some missing clothes." Gendry nodded, and told her to follow him, but once again it was completely raided.

"There's nothing again."

"Do you think there's anything else that could be useful?"

"It's your school, you should know. But maybe the library… books aren't essential, but a distraction could be good." Gendry wasn't much of a reader, but he agreed with her anyway.

The library had been raided as well, but they had still left some books behind.

"I'll see if anyone left anything good."

"There are games in the back. Maybe I can find a deck of cards or something."

They had taken most of the games as well, there were no decks of cards, or dominos, or _UNO_ , or anything like that. He could find a board of _Risk_ , but that wasn't the type of game to play in a cave to distract yourself for a few minutes, to fit that job he found two games – _Battleship_ and _Guess Who?_ – and took them back to Arya, who had made a small tower of books.

"I found two games which are worth taking. You?"

"People left a lot of Nicholas Sparks behind – if Sansa comes home, she will like that. I'm taking some dictionaries as well – they could be useful. And I'm taking some adventure classics people left behind – you may actually like some. They had _The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn_ – it is the best book I ever had to read for school; and someone left behind the last two volumes of _The Dark Materials_ series behind – it's amazing, and Bran's favorite. After they finish the first book, they will really regret not taking the others…"

"Do they fit in your bag?" he asked her.

"I found some bags in the back – they could be useful – he should take them as well. Help me pack."

They were able to fit everything into the bags, before going back to the window from where they had climbed in. They threw their bags to the floor, and then jumped, after making sure than neither of them had gotten too hurt in the jump, they kept moving.

They spent the rest of the afternoon sticking the photos on bare walls in the center of the city and then some more in the surroundings. They would go back to her home tomorrow, so they could stick some photos there as well.

Every time they stuck a new photo, Arya would stay for a bit looking at the photo, like waiting for someone to show up immediately – like the photo would work with magic.

They got back to their hide out before dark – it wasn't safe to stay out after dark – they pulled out their new things from the backs, and took off the armour they used over there regular clothes. Gendry brought some of their special food – alcohol and chocolate – and the _Guess Who?_ game to their bed, they both sat in the mattress, ready to start a game, when Arya spoke.

"Thank you, Gendry. For everything…"

"Merry Christmas, Arya," he told her with a smile, opening the bottle and giving her the first swig.

"Merry Christmas, Gendry," she said back, taking the bottle and the gulp. "Now, is it a girl?"


End file.
